Supreme Court rules in favor of 2011 law suspending COLA increases for public pensions

[Retriever]

Originally Posted by suzsaz

So, if you worked for the state you didn't pay into social security because you were promised a pension.
Also, let's not forget that Christie Whitman was the first to screw NJ public employees. Chris Christie followed in her broomstick (I mean footsteps).

Yes, it is true that Christine Todd Whitman (alias, Madame Deficit) originated the concept in NJ that public employees are inherently evil and that it was not just permissible, but that it was actually justified, to "screw" them. However, you then you proceeded to go totally off the rails with that erroneous comment about Social Security contributions.

Where did you get the spurious idea that state (and county, and municipal) employees don't have to "pay into Social Security"?

[ALackOfCreativity]

Originally Posted by CaptainNJ

when there is a shortfall in the money that exists for the public entity to pay out benefits; they should be forced to go bankrupt and renegotiate terms. taking on existing debt or raising taxes shouldnt be an option.

Really the shortfall shouldn't have been allowed to exist in the first place.

Politicians can make public sector unions happy by giving them richer benefits or avoid a fight with them by not cutting them while not putting in an adequate contribution and hey, they'll be out of office before you have a funding crisis. No good; we should be fully funding any promises when they are incurred which will force either immediate tax increases or reduced pension promises immediately preventing a crisis and making politicians and ultimately voters choose rather than kicking the can.

Of course, that would have been great in theory but what happened is politicians offered overgenerous pensions to workers while not raising the taxes to fund them for decades and now there's a gap that needs to be closed. There are moral imperatives both ways -- the total compensation including those pensions was inflated by captured politicians above the free market wages most taxpayers are being taxed on on the one hand, and on the other there are a lot of state retirees who saved nothing for retirement beyond those pensions. Anyway, it's a very good thing for NJ's solvency that this went through -- although it will hurt for the recipients when inflation picks back up from the low levels of the last 5 years.